Houston residents are expected to file a lot more federal income tax extensions with the IRS this year as victims of Hurricane Harvey tally up losses to take a special disaster deduction.

Tax specialists are advising that Harvey victims take extensions, rather than rush to meet the Tuesday tax filing deadline. The special deduction for flood losses can lower taxes significantly, depending on the extent of damages not covered by insurance, but gathering all the documentation to claim the deduction is not necessarily easy.

Houston CPA Edward M. Gardner estimates that more than half of his clients who flooded are filing extensions because they haven’t had enough time to calculate their losses. Frankly, he added, it’s also not a priority for them.

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"They’re fixing up their homes," he said, " or they’re still fighting with their insurance companies and won’t know what they will get."

Gardner will be one of the Houstonians who will ask the IRS for an extension to sort out his own damages. His house in Meyerland took on about four feet of water during Hurricane Harvey.

Among the challenges facing Harvey victims is calculating whether property values fell as a result of Harvey and by how much, tabulations that require original sales prices, renovation records, insurance proceeds and estimates of the fair market value, pre- and post-flood. Receipts that prove how much was paid for lost belongings might be buried deep inside a storage locker or got thrown out with everything else damaged by the floods. The records, in these cases, may need to be reconstructed

The extension is automatic and it’s good for six months. But applying for an extension does not extend the deadline to pay taxes; it only extends the deadline to file a tax return. Taxpayers filed 11.6 million extension requests last year, according to the National Society of Accountants.

Last fall, Congress passed special tax relief for victims of hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma who live in specialty designated presidential disaster areas, including Harris and surrounding counties. One of the biggest advantages of the legislation is that Harvey victims in 53 counties in Texas and 20 parishes in Louisiana can deduct more of their losses than they typically could in other disasters such as fire or theft.

Under special Harvey rules, taxpayers can deduct all of their flood-related losses from their income, less a $500 deductible. They do not have to meet a 10 percent floor on adjusted gross income that makes it difficult to deduct damages on anything but catastrophic losses.

Harvey victims also can add the claimed to a standard deduction. There is no need to itemize as with other disasters